and the One who walks with me on it.

Friday, March 07, 2014

Backwards Through the Ten Commandments- #7



7.  You shall not commit adultery. Ex. 20:14

        Hey, I’ve got this one covered!  I have never had sex with another person while we were married.  I’ve been faithful to him.  This is one commandment that I’ve not broken, finally.  Is that what you’re thinking?  I would honestly be surprised if that was the truth and here’s the reason why from just the sexual side of things.

       Adultery in Webster’s 1828 dictionary means “all manner of lewdness (indulgence of lust, all sexual sin, *remember this but don’t look down yet) or unchastity (indulgence of sexual appetite) and *don’t look yet.  Remember in the last post I said Jesus wants us to be a cut above?  He said, “But I say to you that whoever looks on a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.(Mt. 5:28).  Tomorrow I’ll write another verse that indicates thoughts are as bad as actions!

       Okay, let’s put some of this together.  When we check ourselves for breakage of this command, we can’t just check what we’ve physically done, but have to check our mind as well.  Do we ever indulge in lust (fantasy- whether sexual or romantic, pornography, adult movies, certain swimsuit calendars, etc) or indulge our sexual appetite in any way physically (self pleasure) or in our mind?  For me, it was fantasy about the ‘perfect relationship’, playing out emotionally fulfilled relationships in my head that satisfied my needs more perfectly.  (Just as dangerous to a marriage as pornography imo.) Others use romance books with sexual scenes for example.

       Then there are tv shows and movies that are far too easy to watch when in pops a lust filled scene, but do we turn away or turn it off?  No, we usually leave it on.  And sometimes the shows get us cheering for the adulterous couple finally getting together!  It’s crazy!  So we watch these things and it gets our blood pumping for others, or others than our spouse.  How ‘bout listening to radio shows where they speak of these things and it can stir feelings as well or laughing at sexual innuendo?  Now remember, all these things are for unmarried people as well.  How we doing so far?

or God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Hb. 13:4 ESV
Flee fornication… 1Cr. 6:18
For you know this, that no fornicator, or unclean person, or covetous one (who is an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Ep. 5:5

Even looking with lust...
Now go back to the definition of adultery and read the asterisks (*) to find out what adultery includes.

       Yes, that’s right, adultery (in the Bible) included idolatry (worship of idols, any other creation/ creature or any thing made of human hands; excessive attachment or veneration for any thing)  Since this topic will be covered elsewhere, I will leave it at this.  If any thing is taking our affection, our time, our money, our thoughts, more than we give God, we then place that thing above God and are being idolatrous.  That could be anything, especially today with so many things vying for our attention.

To almost finish, this verse brings out God’s will for us and how we should not be the same as others:

For this is the will of God, your sanctification, for you to abstain from fornication (married or not), each one of you to know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor (not in the passion of lust, even as the nations who do not know God)For God has not called us to uncleanness, but in sanctification. 1Th. 4:3-5,7

So, in the deepest parts of our hearts have we kept this commandment?


Commandment # 7 -broken often



*idolatry, licentiousness
*idolatry, or apostasy (desertion of god) from the true God. Jer 3.